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For the last several months, Syrians have been loudly protesting their own government. The regime, led by strongman Bashar al-Assad, has responded by killing its own citizens, including women and children, and shutting off channels of communication that the protesters have been utilizing (such as the Internet). According to theBoston Globe, "the continuing crackdown that has killed more than 1,000 people, with hundreds more rounded up in mass arrests."

But in an apparent effort to turn the world's attention away from its own problems, the Syrian regime is reportedly now paying its citizens to protest the Israelis. Ynet reports:

The Syrian opposition group claimed that each farmer was promised $1,000 for showing up at the rally and $10,000 to their families if they are killed by IDF fire.

According to the report, the average salary of a Syrian citizen is about $200 per month, meaning that participation in Sunday's demonstration could provide a protester and his family with five months worth of financial relief.

So once again, Syrian protesters rushed Israel's border, resulting in the deaths of at least a dozen.

The gain for Syria is obvious. Consider this New York Times article, which states: "Israeli forces fired at pro-Palestinian protesters on the Syrian frontier on Sunday as they tried to breach the border for the second time in three weeks, reflecting a new mode of popular struggle and deadly confrontation fueled by turmoil in the Arab world and the vacuum of stalled peace talks."

The Times, here, is ascribing noble ambitions to what is effectively a paid suicide mission.

To the casual observer, it now looks like the Syrian uprising, which is an element of the Arab Spring, has resulted in Israelis killing the Syrians. But this is a preposterous distortion, and the deaths of these Syrians yesterday are once again a consequence of the Assad regime's actions, which is itself intent on self-preservation and deflecting negative attention onto others.